As we head into the 2011 legislative session, I wanted to give everyone a brief overview of the legislation that I will be introducing.  Since this is a short session, I tried very hard not to carry as many bills as I do in a long session.  But as often is the case, duty calls and we have to take these bills.  I started out with about 35 and I have been able to narrow that down to about 25, which, in all honesty, is probably too many to try to work during a short session, but all of them have merit of their own.

One of the most important bills that I will be carrying is a very important economic development bill, both for my district and the state of Virginia.  The bill essentially would give a tax credit to corporations that would move into Virginia from other states and reduce the corporate tax in half for them in an amount equal to their capital investment in their offices or location in the state, assuming they do certain things.  Likewise, it would allow corporations in Virginia that are in areas of population over 200,000 to locate satellite operations in areas with population of under 200,000 to receive the same tax credit, as long as they either hire new people or reduce the commute mileage of their current employees substantially.  This bill encourages new business to locate in my district from Fauquier and Stafford all the way down to Lancaster.  Obviously, our populations are below that threshold.  What it also does is it would take commuters off the road so that their quality of life is so much better if they don’t have to drive an hour or two every day to go to their jobs in Northern Virginia and would ease congestion on the road.

I am also introducing a bill to revise the way subdivision streets are dealt with regarding developers.  Heretofore, developers were able to commit certain promises with regard to subdivision streets.  Often times, they were able to release their bonds and walk away without those roads ever being finished and without those roads being taken into our state highway system as was intended.  This bill would allow localities to withhold occupancy permits and retain full performance guarantees until these streets are completed and accepted by the state agency.  This puts the burden on the developers to do what they said they would do.

In the area of public safety, I am putting in a bill to deal with synthetic marijuana and the sale of it to children.  It is very common to see this pep spice or K2 sold in convenience stores and marketed as incense, but children are buying it and smoking it and it is killing them or, at the very least, making them very ill.  I drafted legislation to get to the root of that and, hopefully, it will be successful.

I have also put in legislation to expand gang-free zones to add in school bus stops, public parks, libraries, and hospitals.  If gang activity does occur there, there is enhanced punishment that goes along with that.

I have several bills to help restore the Chesapeake Bay.  The most significant of those bills is a bill that would essentially ban the sale of lawn fertilizer with phosphorous in it, unless you do a soil analysis that shows you need phosphorous or if you are just starting a new lawn.   Most people are unaware that the phosphorous content in their soils is fine, but fertilizer comes with phosphorous in it anyway.  So, people spread it not realizing that they don’t need to spread it and they don’t need to pay for it.  Therefore, this will save the consumer money and, most notably, it will help to save the Chesapeake Bay.  Phosphorous is one of the big compounds that leads to algae growth and ultimately leads to the dead zones that we are experiencing in the Chesapeake Bay.  If we can eliminate the majority of it from lawn fertilizers and stop it from being applied when it doesn’t need to be applied, we can go a long way to meeting our T.M.D.L.’s and restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

This is just a glimpse of all the legislation that I have introduced.  I will explain more as the session goes on.  As I said, 25 bills is a very aggressive legislative agenda for a short session, but hard work will never hurt us.

The session begins Wednesday, January 12, 2011, and will conclude at the end of February 2011.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to serve you in the State Senate.  If I can be of any service, I can be reached at my senate office, 804-698-7528, P. O. Box 396, Richmond, Virginia 23218 or my district office, 804-493-8892, P. O. Box 1146, Montross, Virginia 22520, or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .